During the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) of the UNFCCC taking place in Katowice, Both ENDS partner Raju Pandit Chettri – director of Prakriti Resources Centre in Nepal - was one of the selected Southern leaders to meet with the Dutch Minister of Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Sigrid Kaag. We asked Raju about his expectations, messages, Kaag's responses and his experiences of the meeting.

Climate finance must reach the local level

Raju: "I expected to be able to participate in a frank exchange of information, including hearing the points of view of the Netherlands and how it would take positons during COP24, but also how it would be supporting climate actions on the ground.

The meeting was short and productive. Representatives from the Global South shared their critical issues and challenges they face in their countries. Myself, I was able to share the experiences of PRC's work (including the work with Both ENDS in GAGGA), taking into account the specific challenges in Nepal as a mountainous country. I stressed that it is of crucial importance to work with local civil society groups and communities – especially women's groups - to make sure climate finance reaches the local level."

Minister Kaag: "Looking for adaptation champions"

"As a response to my issues, the Minister argued that capacity building was very important, including for CSOs. She was concerned about the shrinking space for civil society and said this should be protected. The Minister stated that leadership should come from all, including civil society. Furthermore, Kaag spoke about the New Dutch Climate Fund that would prioritize 65% of the funds for adaptation and highlighted the fact that incentivizing adaptation action was important.

Kaag told Raju and the other Southern leaders that gender equality and women empowerment are key priorities to her. Besides that, the Minister explained that livelihoods and adaptation are also critically important, and that she is looking for champions in adaptation.

Gender is a critical aspect of climate action

"As gender is critical but somehow controversial in the Green Climate Fund (GCF), I asked the Minister if the Netherlands would do anything in particular to make sure the GCF Gender Policy would get approved. My impression is that the Minister seems to be serious about climate action, in particular adaptation actions in developing countries related to women empowerment and livelihoods and seems to support CSOs and ensure their space is protected."

Lastly, Raju was able to advocate for a strong Paris rulebook and asked the Netherlands to do all in its powers to ensure the successful implementation of the Paris Agreement. He also addressed that the Dutch focus on mobilizing private sector finance has its limitations and that local private sector should not be forgotten.

This paper by Prakriti Resources Center (Nepal) sheds light on the gender and climate change nexus, gender mainstreaming as a tool to address gender inequality, gender and climate change policy landscape both at international and national level, gaps and way forward.

The third session of our five part series on women's rights and climate finance, Getting the Money to the People: GCF Accreditation and Enhanced Direct Action, focused on accessing the Green Climate Fund through working with stakeholders at the country level (engaging with the National Designated Authority), utilizing Enhanced Direct Access, and seeking accreditation.

The fifth session of our five part series on women's rights and climate finance, Experiences and Perspectives of Women Engaging in Climate Finance, shared the insights of three activists who have been serving as GCF Monitors as part of the "Women Demand 'Gender-Just' Climate Finance" initiative. They spoke about their processes of learning about climate finance and connecting with others to monitor climate finance in their communities and regions, discussed the value they have found in this work, and answered questions from webinar participants.

The fourth webinar of a five part series on women's rights and climate finance: Strategies for Organizing to Influence, Monitor, and Track Climate Finance (from Global to Local), focused on strategies to engage with various actors to both facilitate and advocate for the meaningful inclusion of the perspectives and experiences of women's groups, affected communities, and other civil society stakeholders in the design and implementation of projects and programs.

The second session of our five part series on women's rights and climate finance, Gender Mainstreaming in Climate Finance Mechanisms, provided an overview of how gender equality has been mainstreamed into global climate finance mechanisms, including a deep dive on gender considerations under the Green Climate Fund by Liane Schalatek of the Heinrich Boell Foundation - North America.

This Introduction to Climate Finance is the first of a five part series on women's rights and climate finance, aiming to build knowledge and power to ensure finance flows are benefiting local women's groups, responding to community needs and respecting human rights. This session will outline the climate finance landscape, as well as the key challenges and opportunities we hope to explore in this webinar series.

Join us for the third session of this five-part series on women's rights and climate finance, aimed at building knowledge and power to ensure finance flows benefit local women's groups, respond to community needs and respect human rights.

The Green Climate Fund aims to support transformational pathways to climate-resilient development, intends to reach those most vulnerable, and commits to a gender-sensitive approach. This session presents an important way of putting these commitments into practice: by engaging small grants funds. These funds can provide the much needed channel between large international institutions and local communities adapting to climate change, and assure financing reaches women and men to contribute to transformative climate action. But how to make this shift in how financing is delivered? The audience will be actively engaged in the discussion to come to concrete suggestions to strengthen local access and gender responsiveness of climate finance.

On the 14th of April, Both ENDS wil host a workshop called 'Small Grants, Big Impacts' on the annual Africa day in Amsterdam. The workshop aims to demonstrate that so called 'small grants funds' effectively deliver (devopment and climate) money where it matters, to people that need it the most. Large development banks, funds, donors and governments could use small grants funds as alternative financing mechanisms to make sure their money benefits people and their environment now and it the far future.

From 7 to 18 november, the Climate Change COP22 will take place in Marrakech, Morrocco. This '22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)' as it is called officially, is the annual meeting of the 195 countries which have signed and ratified the convention.